landscape – Page 19 – My Photo Blog

Out in the world again – 7 April 2020

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Zogman

We ventured out today, just for exercise. On purpose we didn’t go to the beach or to our second home in Fife.

We didn’t go out to the beach or Fife, but just in case there was somebody somewhere listening in to our conversation, Scamp sneakily said we could walk over to Condorrat (where there are shops that sell essential foodstuffs). That way, the powers that be, the police, the government and MI6 wouldn’t suspect that we were going to St Mo’s. It was a clever ruse, and it had me fooled too. I thought we were going to the butchers to get a nice juicy steak for dinner, but instead of turning right at the end of the path past the (now locked) swing park, we turned left, crossed the road and walked through St Mo’s. The diversion might have had me fooled, but the invisible trackers, that are now being designed to be injected into our bodies secretly in the anti-virus when its made, wouldn’t have been fooled by the change of direction. They would have reported back and sent a fleet of drones to pinpoint our location for a squad car of armed police to detain us under their new emergency powers. At least, that’s what I read on the InterWeb last night.

Anyway, in the real world, we went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was fairly quiet with no cars in the car park and only a handful of people walking around in the sunshine taking in all the vitamin D that was available. There wasn’t much to see, but I did take another low down landscape for St Mo’s from the far side of the pond. I’d say that it was the best of the photos I took today, but it was really one of only two photo that survived the cull when I got them into the ‘puter back home. The main reason I didn’t take any more was that the battery indicator on the camera was flashing red, warning me no doubt that it was about to shut down. I’ve never seen it flash red before and the camera did take about three hours to replenish the battery from my fastest fast charger, so it must have been pretty empty.

Back home I managed to repair the pocket on a pair of jeans. I hate throwing out a perfectly good pair of jeans, just because the pockets are worn through, not with cash I hasten to add, but with my keys. Making the repair pocket isn’t a problem, it’s the topology of pockets that gives me a headache. It’s like working with a cloth Klein Bottle, where the inside becomes the outside and vice versa, plus you have to work out how to get the bloody thing into a position that allows the sewing machine needle to do its work. Finally after three dummy runs, with me as senior dummy, I botched it together. It’s not the finest piece of sewing I’ve done, but I think I’ve saved another pair of jeans from the bin. Now I’ve just found another pair in need of a new pocket. I’ll possibly leave that until next week when my head has stopped hurting.

According to government sources tonight, Boris is in good spirits and is stable. It didn’t mention exactly what the spirits were and if it was overindulging in them that had led to the initial instability. We wish him well. Better the devil you know …

Tomorrow is the big day. The weather doesn’t look great, but I think we may go looking for a park bench, quietly.

Taps off weather? – 5 April 2020

Posted on April 5, 2020April 5, 2020 by Zogman

17ºc predicted for today. I used to define 15ºc as ‘Shorts & Tee Shirt weather’. I don’t think it quite reached the 17º today.

In fact it hardly reached the heady heights of 15ºc once windchill was taken into account. Yes, I was wearing a tee shirt, but it was under a shirt which itself was under a zip-up cardigan, so I don’t think it was in the spirit of the Shorts & Tee Shirt region. It certainly fell quite short of the Shorts requirement. Just to be sure that frostbite wasn’t going to figure in the report, I was also wearing a fleece to go out into St Mo’s in the afternoon.

I was hoping to see some deer, I’m always hoping. I’d come prepared with the camera set to shutter priority, lens pre-focused to infinity and long lens attached to the Oly. Just got clear line of sight to see the white tail of my quarry disappearing over yonder hillock, easily 200m away. Oh well, landscapes don’t run away and neither do little beasties, well, they do, but not so fast that I can’t catch them on camera. Switched to a macro lens and went looking for some slower, less easily frightened sycamore seedlings to stalk. Got a few, then I heard the crashing sound away to my left. It must be one, or possibly two dogs I’d seen earlier, excitedly chasing a ball. No, out of the corner of my eye I saw a deer, a roe deer buck with neat little antlers charging down the line of the bushes not 20m away. Wrong lens on the camera. Do I have time to change? Yes! Without moving my head I got the lens out of the camera bag, disengaged the bayonet on the macro lens and removed it, then, with both lenses in my hands and none on the camera, the deer turned and looked straight at me. I thought I’d got away with it, then it must have sensed or scented me and it ran off to join its mate, because the first one I was sure was a doe. Oh well, screwed up again. How often has Scamp heard me say “Wrong lens”. This time it wasn’t WRONG lens, it was NO lens on the camera!
Gave up on the deer hunt, took some desultory photos of sycamore seedlings and walked out to of the woods. Walked right round the pond and took a few shots across it of the reflections and last year’s horsetails blocking it up. That became PoD.

We’d spoken to Hazy in the morning and found that they had beautiful blue skies down London way. At that time we had dull grey skies. That didn’t prevent Scamp from doing a bit of transplanting and potting up of last year’s cuttings. She really does have green fingers. A great deal of her cuttings take root. Some of mine do, but she beats me for skill and enthusiasm. Hazy reported that more of the nasturtiums she’d planted in their window box had germinated too.

Dinner tonight was Loch Trout with potatoes, carrots and broccoli. Absolutely delicious. Scamp made it of course and although I’m not a great fish fanatic, I thought this was extremely tasty. Almost as good was pudding which was cake and custard. Some things, although they are simple are simply the best things to have.

Spoke to JIC later and he explained to me in Topsy & Tim terms how the government labs are using antibodies to give results in Coronavirus tests. Very well done JIC, I understood a lot of that explanation. They also had had a springlike day down Cambridge way with warm temperatures and clear skies. Eventually we did get clear skies too, in fact I’m maybe being a bit critical when I say we didn’t reach the predicted 17º. It probably was that in the shelter from the wind here. Actually about 7.30am I looked out the back window and the sky was that lovely orange-pink colour you get in early morning springtime. Maybe spring is really here.

Today the Scottish chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood was forced to resign after admitting that she’d travelled from Edinburgh to her second home in Fife, not once, but twice recently. This was in direct contradiction of her own advice to the Scottish public. Foolish, but aren’t we all at times? Don’t we all think we’re above the law? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Tomorrow we will be waiting patiently for our food delivery from Tesco.

Another beautiful Spring day – 20 March 2020

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Zogman

Apparently today was the Spring Equinox, something about the sun crossing the equator.

I don’t know if the sun was actually crossing the equator today, but we definitely saw if for a lot of the afternoon. We’d decided to go for a walk again today. A much longer walk than yesterday, about 5 miles according to my Fitbit. We were walking along the Forth & Clyde Canal from Auchinstarry Quarry to Twechar and back. Before we left Auchinstarry I grabbed a shot of two roped up rock climbers having a wee discussion of the best way to climb the rock. One in the bag.We started out on our walk with the big Bergy coats on, Scarves, Wooly Hats and Scamp even had her gloves on. I was a rock cake and kept my gloves and my hands in my jacket pockets. Halfway along the canal, the jackets were zipped down, then the scarves, gloves and wooly bunnets were pocketed away and we began to feel the heat of the sun. We some folk who had gone further and were wearing shorts, but that’s just taking things too far. It might be that Spring is just around the corner, but that was a cold wind blowing from the east. One step at a time.

When we turned at Twechar and headed face forward into that eastern breeze, the bunnets were back on and the jackets were zipped up again. Got today’s PoD just outside Twechar as an eight shot panorama created in Lightroom, then cleaned up in ON1 2019. Quite pleased with it, it showed what the light was like today. We passed a few hardy folk out walking and cycling, and even a few jogging. All of them keeping the approved 2m distance from us, just to be sure.

On the way back to the car we discussed food options for the next few days and decided another visit to the butchers was in order. With that in mind we drove to Muirhead and then split up. Scamp to check out the Co-op and me to get some meat and fish it there was any fish. There was a queue outside the butchers, and I groaned. It was Friday and it’s usually busy on Fridays, but actually this was a H&S queue, all to do with Covid 19. People were asked to wait outside and were called into the shop to reduce the risk of cross contamination. Once in I had to sanitise my hands with an alcohol gel. Perfectly sensible really in these strange days. I was looking for some more Thai Chicken Stir-Fry, but there were no chickens from any geographical location in a stir-fry sauce. Got some beef stir-fry instead. Also got some fish for Scamp and best of all, two bags of pasta. No pasta in Tesco, nor as it turned out in the Co-op, but there was some in the butchers! Strange days indeed. When we got back home, the girl next door, Angela’s daughter Lucy, came out to say that she was giving her mum a lift to her work in Asda in the mornings and if we needed anything, just to give her a list. I thought that was very kind of her and told her so. I also said that although we were fine at the moment, I’d keep her offer in mind.

With that, our exercise for the day was done. Lunch was (Just) soup and a late supper was a pizza.

The big Covid 19 announcement of the day, apart from having to queue outside the butchers and then use hand sanitiser, was that all clubs, pubs and restaurants would be closed from tonight until the foreseeable future. That also made sense to me and was entirely predictable.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk again in a different place and a different direction, no doubt. Where is not yet decided, but we will be taking a flask and ’pieces’.

Smiddy for lunch – 14 March 2020

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Zogman

We just wanted to get out today and the Smiddy at Blair Drummond fitted the bill

Drove out there through occasional drizzle, but with the chance of some brightness too. I realised we’d made the right choice when I saw the specials menu. Baked potato with Veg Chilli, Jalapeños and Sour Cream. Haven’t had that in ages. They also had Erdinger no-alcohol beer on the drinks menu, so I had that too. For Scamp it was Mac ’n’ Cheese with the Smiddy hand cut Chips (Skin on), washed down with a glass of red. If I’m going to be picky, and I do have my foodie credentials to uphold, the potato felt as if it had been under the heat lights for a while and the chilli tasted like a re-heat, rather than fresh. Like I say, being picky. Scamp bought some fresh veg from the deli. She always prefers fresh veg, not packed in cling film. Things you can lift and check the condition. Ok, you maybe pay more that at Tesco, but you get to choose what you’re buying.

While she was making her selection, I took the opportunity to grab some photos of the Gargunnock Hills which were managing to find some sunshine from somewhere. The sky was broken and there was light up there, but not a lot. Today’s PoD shows the resulting panoramic image, built from five frames. It looks like I saw it.

Then, as the rain was starting, we headed back home. As we were driving past Stirling, the road was very wet but the sun was shining brightly. A typical Scottish day. It seemed as if we’d just missed a heavy rain shower, although we were about five miles north and we had only had spits and spots of the wet stuff.

I thought there was going to be enough light to go for a walk in St Mo’s when we got home, but although it didn’t actually rain, it was just too dull. You know my saying by now. “It’s all about the light”. I took one record shot of a pine tree “Pineapple” and that was out of focus, so glad I got the pano from the Smiddy.

While I was out, Scamp started in the back garden. Mainly cleaning up and freshening the soil round the plants, but also a bit of pruning. The rose between us and our next door neighbour was getting bit unruly and spreading into the poor woman’s garden. A few clips with the secateurs soon brought it into line with where it should be. Some of the plants are beginning to show new growth, so I expect she’ll be wanting to get started on the rest of the garden soon, all being well. I’ll try not to get roped in too much.

Watched half of a recorded program about figure drawing. Not something I’d like to have a go at. Portraiture maybe, with a teacher who could actually demonstrate the techniques, not like the one I went to at Cumbersheugh College a year or so ago. However, the hour of the program I watched was interesting enough to go back to another time and see the second half.

Overall not a bad day. In fact it was a much better day than some poor people on a Jet 2 holiday were having when their plane did a ‘U turn’ on the way to Tenerife and flew back to the UK, because the company decided that was the safest option. What a disappointment that would be!

No Sunday Social tomorrow. AdS have cancelled all socials and all classes for at least a fortnight and more likely a month due to Covid 19. It’s all becoming a bit claustrophobic now. We may go for a walk somewhere tomorrow if it’s dry.

Leaping Day – 29 February 2020

Posted on February 29, 2020 by Zogman

It’s that day that only exists every four years.

To celebrate Leap Day, we went in to Stirling, in fact we went over the Tak-Ma-Doon road to Stirling. For the most part if was a jolly little run in the country, however halfway to Stirling, just as we were crossing the main road we came upon a bit of flooding. It wasn’t a problem for the Red Juke with its high clearance, but I was a bit worried incase there were any nasty little potholes lurking under that seemingly innocent water surface, but there weren’t, at least we didn’t sink into any, but it did make me think about all these poor folk down south who have been flooded out of their houses.

The next part of the journey was uphill again with no place for a lurking flood then it was down-dale and all the water would be rushing ahead of us with no time to block our path. After the downhill stretch we were on to the straight and level road where I could stop and get a few photos, one of which made PoD. It’s a wee farm under a glowering sky that promised snow. Luckily the snow had the good sense to wait for an hour or two before coming pelting down.

Stirling was busy, so busy that we couldn’t get in to Nero, so we went to a wee independent coffee shop where the coffee was poor, but the food was really good. Much better than either Costa or Nero’s usual tasteless stuff. Must go back again the next time we’re in Stirling. There being nothing else we wanted other than a wee run in the country and a bite to eat, we came back home via Waitrose where Scamp chose a basket rather than a trolley and that prompted us to buy what we needed, rather than the whole shop. We had sleet all the way home and later in the evening the snow did make a brief appearance, but it didn’t last and it didn’t lie. It’s getting a bit windy now as Storm Jorge slides across the country. Allegedly we won’t get the worst of it. There is heavy snow forecast for north of us and strong winds south of us, but as I’m writing this the bins are taking a battering from the wind.

Dinner tonight was a frugal but really tasty omelette. Peppers, onions, mushrooms and cooked ham sorted mine. Scamp’s was the same minus the cooked ham. We had considered getting a carry-out, but settled for a cooked meal because we couldn’t be bothered going out for Chinese or Indian and didn’t want to wait until 10pm to have a tepid meal delivered. A glass of wine washed the omelettes down nicely, and you can’t drink wine with a Chinese or an Indian take-away, at least we can’t.

The sketching topic was “Wedding”. Presumably it was to celebrate the fact that on Leap Day, the lady can ask the gentleman to marry them. SoD was Scamp’s suggestion. It was the bridesmaid’s basket that Hazy carried at Jackie’s wedding a few years ago … quite a few years ago! My mum crocheted the basket and formed it using sugar to stiffen it. She also dressed it with with artificial flowers. The flowers have faded a bit, but the memories are still there. That’s the last one done for this year. I may continue sketching, but if my past record is repeated, the work will peter out gradually, there being no real incentive to get things done and on time. I’ll miss it, but I can hold out until May when it returns again.

No plans for tomorrow except for dancing hopefully in the late afternoon. Real dancing. Salsa!

Storage, Lunch, Compost and Bridges – 28 February 2020

Posted on February 28, 2020February 29, 2020 by Zogman

In that order. Oh yes, and Snow.

So what of the day then? Well, I fancied a trip to somewhere with technology. Somewhere with computers and hard drives and vacant sales people with limited knowledge of those things. Currys, that would fit the bill. My ever expanding photo collection would soon be in need of some extra storage space. Almost fifteen years of photos were almost completely filling the 2TB hard drive they are presently stored in. More accommodation is required and if you know what you want, how much you need and how much you’re prepared to spend, Curry’s is probably the best place to go, just don’t expect any help from the sales folk. They are there to sell, not advise. If you do ask them for advice on what desktop external hard drive to buy, you might come home with a washing machine instead, because logically, the person you spoke to hasn’t been on the computer external storage course yet, but they have successfully completed the one on washing machines. I Knew, I Wanted, I Bought … a Seagate 4TB USB3 Drive and it looks very swish.

With the purchase safely in the boot of the Juke, we went for lunch. Two Fish ’n’ Chips, one latte and one Americano. We think the indeterminate fish was River Cobbler whatever that is. It certainly wasn’t cod or haddock, but it tasted ‘fishy’ and it was hot, so were the chips and the coffee and that was all we were bothered about. Outside, the snow was pelting down. It had started as sleet, but had now graduated to real snow. Next stop Compost.

Scamp has decided that even though the weather thinks it’s still winter, in a couple of days it will be March and that’s effectively Spring, so it’s time to plant some seeds and for that you need lots of little plastic pockets, forty of them per propagator and lots of compost to fill those pockets. She already has the seeds, they’ve become a traditional Christmas present for Scamp. I’ve a packets too I think, somewhere, so I might be able to borrow one or two of those little pockets for my Teasels. I’d imagine the little seeds will be sown soon and kept inside until the temperature realises that it’s soon to be spring.

Today’s topic for sketching was ‘Bridge’. I searched my Flickr photo stream this morning for possible subjects and arrived at a shortlist of six. After browsing them, I settled on one of Mauldslie Bridge and Gatehouse. It took about an hour to sketch and paint and ultimately reject. Redrew it and repainted it and it became SoD.

PoD was taken earlier in the day and was of a rather snowy and unimpressive Campsie Fells covered in snow. It’s a poor showing, I know, but some people have decided that the photos must go on, so I do what I can with the cards I’d dealt. Not my best work, but done and on time.

Speaking of time, it’s running on and I want to get this posted today.

Tomorrow we may go shopping in Stirling.

Coffee and some adult conversation – 24 February 2020

Posted on February 24, 2020 by Zogman

Coffee at midday with the rest of the Auld Guys.

Topics under discussion were how to fix NLC, health centres and Boris.

It was generally agreed that NLC are now BER (Beyond Economic Repair) which is a nice way of saying FUBAR.
Health centres seem to be screwing up a lot of people. Within about a 10 mile radius the three centres under discussion were all operating different systems and all of them totally inefficient. Possibly they too are BER.
The book I’m reading at present is Real Tigers by Mick Herron. One nasty piece of work in the book is Peter Judd who is Home Secretary — described as ‘a loose cannon with a floppy fringe and a bicycle’ has his eye on Number 10. Now Peter Judd’s initials are PJ. If you say them quickly they’d sound like BJ, then all sorts of similarities are revealed. A nice piece of satire or simply a coincidence? You choose.

With the world once again set to rights, we went our separate ways and vowed that we’d organise our next meeting in a pub in Glasgow. We’ve been saying it for years and it hasn’t transpired yet. Perhaps 2020 will be that year.

When I got home, Gems were in full voice, so I swiftly had a roll ’n’ bacon and went out into the grim sleet to see if there were any pictures out there worth taking. There were as it happened. I’d stopped on one of my favourite places for a view of the Campsie covered in snow when the clouds came down and obscured them. Then I heard the sound of geese and a large skein appeared from behind some trees. There seemed to be hundreds of birds in the group that split up and rejoined as I grabbed my camera and shot off a few frames through the smirr that had started to fog up the lens. A quick wipe with my shirt tail cured that and I go some more before they headed off north. What do they know that I don’t. The resulting image is at the top of the page.

Dancing tonight was a reprise of waltz which I will tentatively say we can now complete without arguing 75% of the time. After that we did some foxtrot and made a bit of hash of it, but nothing that can’t be improved with some more practise. New to us tonight was quickstep. Now we’ve done quickstep with Michael, but this was quickstep with names for all the steps and the figures and it seemed to flow much better than when we were dancing it in Blackfriars. I’m not saying we have it off pat yet, it’s still a work in progress, but we’re about half way there. Feeling much better about this dancing lark.

I’m not publishing my attempt at a Mandala which is today’s challenge. I wasted an hour of my life drawing it and I don’t intend to foist it on anyone else. If you want to see it go to FB or Flickr.

Tomorrow, no plans, but I think we’ll be practising the quickstep figures.

Out for a walk – 22 January 2020

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Zogman

Much better looking day today, even some sunshine when we woke (whisper it).

After breakfast and a couple of chapters of my newest book (that’s about five chapters for Scamp) and then showered, dressed and out. Today’s destination was Mugdock Country Park in East Dumbartonshire.

Followed the satnav to go there and got parked without any problem and got the walking boots on. The girl who was parked next to us warned us that the paths were quite mucky and she was indeed correct. Walked down past the converted stables and on to the old ruined Craigend Castle, now protected from the punters by a security fence. Got a few shots there, pushing the camera gingerly through the gaps at the joints of the fence. It was the Nikon’s day out again today after it produced the goods yesterday. Further on in a stand of trees, big redwoods, we could hear a woodpecker, but couldn’t quite see it, then another one started up and it seemed a bit like call and response for a while. I was walking through the trees trying to locate the tree the nearest one was in when both of them stopped. Then I did see one fly away across the woods to where the other one seemed to be. No photos though. Scamp had followed me in to the woods and she was the one who noticed the daffodil and maybe snowdrops green spikes sticking up through the leaf litter. Hope I didn’t tramp on any on my way in. I was more careful on the way out.

We walked on to Mugdock Castle and that’s where today’s PoD of the Summer House came from. Just a ruin now, it must have been a fair sized fortress in it’s day back in the 17th century. From there we walked round Mugdock Loch and followed our noses back to the coffee shop at the centre. Two coffees, one roll ’n’ egg, one roll ’n’ sausage (with fried onions!) all for just over £8. A bargain and we’d earned it with our walk.

Drove back home through Bardowie. Drove right past your friend’s house there, Hazy. We couldn’t remember her name. Then we were on a well kent road all the way home. Enjoyed the walk. Enjoyed the company and enjoyed the food. Not a bad day at all. We’ve vowed to go back again soon and take a different road next time.

Dinner tonight was fish and chips with haddock from the fish shop in Kilsyth. A fitting end to the day.

Tomorrow I’ve suggested we go in to Glasgow on the bus.

Another ‘out early’ day

Posted on January 17, 2020 by Zogman

Today we had planned to go to Troon. For once that’s exactly what we did.

Drove down to Troon on the west coast and actually got parked easily in the town. Went for a very cold walk along the front as far as the wind surfers’ carpark. Part of it was almost painless as we were protected from the onshore wind by the three meter high sand dunes. The walk back along the beach was not so comfortable, but gave us an excellent view of the two windsurfers and the kite surfer who seemed to revel in the windy conditions. Got a PoD of two people walking further along the beach than we did. It looks as if it’s a warm evening shot, but it was a bitter midday one in reality. Back in the car we drove down to Scotts for lunch.

We hadn’t booked and I was beginning to wish we had when we saw the number of people going in to the restaurant with views across the marina. I needn’t have worried, we got seated without a problem. Service was a bit slow, but then it was really busy. Food was excellent, as it always is here. Scamp chose Spinach and Potato soup followed by Smoked Haddock and Salmon Gratin. Mine was Spiced Cauliflower Beignet (a bit like mild cauliflower pakora) followed by Slow Cooked Beef Daub with Mash and Cabbage. Both meals were absolutely delicious, although my Spiced Cauliflower Beignet was that star in my eyes. Coffee to start with Tea and Coffee to finish. It was too cold a day for cold drinks.

Stopped at Morrisons on the way home for some essentials like bread and milk. Also filled up the Juke’s tank and drove home through the occasional rain shower. It may have been cold on the beach at Troon, but at least it was dry.

Back home I found a letter telling me it was time for me to update my driving license as I am fast approaching the age when I have to confirm that I am a fit and able driver, but thankfully I don’t have to resit the driving test. That might have been a problem.

Oh, yes and we booked our summer holiday. A good end to a sunny, but not exactly warm day.

Tomorrow we may go to the east, now that we’ve visited the west.

Category: landscape